Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, drama, India, movies, reviews, Santosh Singh, Shanaya Kapoor, Vikrant Massey, Zain Khan Durrani
July 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Santosh Singh
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the dramatic film “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” (based on the short story “The Eyes Have It”) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A permanently blind musician and a temporarily blind actress have an on-again, off-again romance that is affected by lies, mistrust and a love triangle.
Culture Audience: “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the short story on which the movie is based, and sappy and unrealistic romance stories.
“Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” is a mind-numbingly stupid and bloated drama about a permanently blind musician and a temporarily blind actress who have ridiculous breakups and makeups. It’s like an immature romance novel written by a drunk misogynist. And at 138 minutes, “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” is entirely too long for the flimsy plot that is just a repeat loop of the couple being dysfunctional and irritating.
Directed by Santosh Singh and written by Mansi Bagla, “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” (which means “Transgression of the Eyes” in Hindi) is based on Ruskin Bond’s 1953 short story “The Eyes Have It” and is updated to take place in the mid-2020s. Anyone who sees this long-winded abomination of a movie should not be surprised that it’s based on a short story because the basic gist of “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” isn’t enough to fill a short film.
“Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” (which takes place in India) begins by showing two people who meet when they share the same compartment on a train ride from Delhi to Mussoorie. “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” was actually filmed in Mussoorie and Mumbai. Within the first 15 minutes, you know that “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” will be a chore to sit through because the two main characters in the movie act so ludicrously.
Jahaan (played by Vikrant Massey) is a permanently blind musician who plays guitar and piano. Saba (played by Shanaya Kapoor) is a theater actress who is wearing a blindfold because she’s preparing for a role to play a visually impaired/blind person. Saba, who wants to wear a blindfold for 20 days, is on her way to an important audition for a movie musical where she hopes to get the starring role. It would be her first role in a movie.
Jahaan and Saba sit across from each other in the compartment. Neither of them wants to tell the other that they’re visually impaired. And so, when Jahaan and Saba accidentally bump their heads together, she slaps him because she thinks he did it on purpose.
Saba then calls her manager Priya and loudly talks on the phone. Saba demands that Priya pick her up at the train station when Saba gets to Mussoorie. While on the phone, Saba tells Priya that she has to share her train compartment with a “creep.”
And then, Saba is surprised that Jahaan can hear her, even though he’s sitting less than 3 feet away from her and she’s talking loudly. Jahaan takes offense to Saba calling him a “creep.” When Saba needs to call Priya back, she asks for Jahaan’s help, and he tells her to use the Siri app.
Saba then says she’s sorry for slapping Jahaan and insulting him. And then, they bump their heads together again. Jahaan gets annoyed. And Saba makes another apology. And they still won’t tell each other that that they can’t see each other.
During a rest stop, Jahaan (who uses a cane when he walks) goes outside and buys some ginger tea for Saba, who is impressed by this kind gesture. Saba tells Jahaan that Priya was supposed to accompany Saba on this trip, but Priya ditched Saba because Priya wanted to go to Frankfurt, Germany, to be with a boyfriend.
Saba then finally tells Jahaan that she’s visually impaired and why. She asks Jahaan to describe the outdoor scenery to her. Jahaan still doesn’t tell her that he’s blind, so he fabricates a description. He then plays and sings guitar for her.
At this point in the movie, Jahaan lying to her about being able to see the outdoor scenery is the first red flag that Jahaan is very dishonest. However, time and time again, “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” tries to push a false image that Jahaan is “misunderstood,” when he’s really a selfish liar. His lies get much worse. And so does this awful movie.
When Saba and Jahaan reach their destination in Mussoorie, Saba doesn’t know that there’s a driver waiting to pick her up. She walks right past the driver, who’s holding the sign with her name on it. Saba asks Jahaan if she can travel with him to the hotel where he’s staying.
But what a coincidence: The hotel doesn’t have any more available rooms. Saba is told that all the other nearby hotels are also booked up. Saba dejectedly says she’ll just leave. Instead of being a gentleman and offering her his room or trying to help her find other options, Jahaan essentially lets Saba fend for herself.
As Saba starts to leave, she falls down because she can’t see where she’s going and doesn’t have a cane. Only after she falls down does Jahaan offer to share his room with her. He still hasn’t told her that he’s blind. And apparently, Saba is too dimwitted to figure it out. We’re supposed to believe that she doesn’t hear the tapping of his cane when he walks.
Once it’s established that Jahaan and Saba are going to share the same bed in a hotel room, you know exactly what’s going to happen. But the buildup to this romance is just so idiotic, there’s nothing sexy about it. Jahaan yells at Saba when he senses that there’s a gas leak. Jahaan orders Saba to leave the room, but she eventually comes back.
Many of the movie’s scenes are horrendously corny. There’s a scene when Jahaan is on a ladder in the hotel room, with Saba standing at the bottom of the ladder. Jahaan’s trousers accidentally fall on Saba’s face. And apparently, Jahaan isn’t wearing underwear. When he tries to cover up his naked lower half, Jahaan falls on top of Saba. And that’s the first time that they kiss.
Eventually, Jahaan tells Saba the truth about being blind. He also opens up to Saba about his personal background by telling her that he’s an orphan who was raised by his grandparents since he was 7 years old. Jahaan also says he doesn’t have many friends. Nothing is revealed about Saba’s personal background, even though there’s plenty of time in the movie to have that information. It’s an example of how poorly written this movie is.
After a whirlwind fling, Saba breaks up with Jahaan because she says she doesn’t want to be dependent on him. She goes on to get the starring role that she wanted in the movie, where she has to do a lot of dancing in a group, and yet she’s still temporarily blind when she’s doing dance routine in group rehearsals. It all looks so fake.
Saba starts dating the movie’s director Abhinav (played by Zain Khan Durrani), who calls her “the love of his life,” even though he’s probably known her for only a week. Abhinav doesn’t disrespect Saba, but he’s is a little bit creepily obsessive for someone who barely knows Saba. For example, it’s mentioned that ever since they started dating, Abhinav has been talking on the phone every day with Saba’s father, in order to impress Saba’s family.
One day, Abhinav introduces the cast to the person who will be playing the piano for the live dance numbers. The piano player says his name is Kabir, but he’s really Jahaan. Saba immediately recognizes Jahaan’s voice and a song that he wrote and played for her when they were briefly a couple. She asks him if he’s Jahaan or knows Jahaan, but Jahaan completely denies it and insists that his name is Kabir.
“Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” becomes an increasingly preposterous back-and-forth of Saba having conflicting feelings about Jahaan, while Abhinav is ready to propose marriage to Saba. One of the worst sequences in the movie is when Jahaan and Saba are at a nightclub and find out too late that their drinks were spiked with an unnamed psychedelic drug. The “drug trip” is so asinine, it will make viewers feel like they lost some brain cells just by watching it.
The movie also is terribly inconsistent on when Jahaan uses eye protections, such as sunglasses, to shield from harsh lighting. Sometimes, he wears eye protectons indoors. But then in other scenes, he doesn’t wear any eye protections in rooms that have very bright lights. Don’t expect any explanation for these inconsistencies.
Jahaan’s big lie about his identity is one of several things he does that show blatant disrepect to Saba. At one point, he dumps Saba by abruptly disappearing on her during a date that she thought was going well, and then leaving her a breakup message on her voicemail instead of having the decency to tell her in person. This horrible movie expects viewers to believe that Jahaan is some type of desirable and romantic catch, but anyone with self-respect can see that he’s toxic. “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” eventually makes Saba a complete doormat in this relationship;.
The acting performances in “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” aren’t much better than the movie’s substandard writing and clumsy directing. Durrani does the least to embarrass himself, while Kapoor (who makes her feature-film debut in this movie) and Massey are not convincing as a couple who should be together. The movie is insulting to the challenges that blind people have in real life. Unfortunately, people who watch this train wreck of a film can’t un-see it.
Zee Studios released “Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on July 11, 2025.